


if you dare, come a little closer

by allornothing



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 04:30:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14276958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allornothing/pseuds/allornothing
Summary: Truth be told, he didn’t even know what he was hoping for for when he knocked on her door. All he knew as he made his way from the bar to her place was that he wanted to see her. No. He needed to see her.





	if you dare, come a little closer

The apartment was a mess. Pieces of fabric were scattered across the floor of Tessa’s apartment, bringing a touch of color to the otherwise immaculate environment. She liked white; she liked the purity of the decor she created, white, light gray and crème colors setting the tone perfectly. It was calm and relaxing, exactly what she needed because pretty much everything else in her life was everything but calm and relaxing. Between collaborations that she was still doing with various companies that she held near and dear and having her own job at B2ten where she worked with athletes to create with them the perfect costumes – she learned a lot from Mathieu and as B2ten was growing, they offered her to become a part of their team – she didn’t have enough of 24 hours in a day to do everything she wanted. That, and she has always been an overachiever, wanting to do more than she was expected to, putting in longer hours at works, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. She knew it wasn’t healthy but that was just who she was. She had a hard time saying no to projects because she had this fear of letting people down, and had this tendency of seeing herself as superwoman, thinking that she could do everything even though it was clear to everyone else that whatever she had on her plate was clearly too much for one person, no matter how brilliant, quick and efficient they were.

Which is why she was sitting in the middle of her living room at one in the morning, staring at fabrics, mixing and matching them, writing down her favorite combinations in a notebook that was sitting by her side. Her pencil was stuck between her teeth when a knock on the door made her jump out of her skin and the pencil fall down on her notebook. A look at the clock on the wall let her know that she had been at it for over five hours straight, making her realize that it would’ve maybe been time for her to get some rest. But sleep could wait a little bit longer, right? Even though she usually needed at least seven hours of sleep to be a fully functional human being, she could manage going through her day with less than that. As she stopped figuring out how many hours she’d sleep and her plans for the next day would be, she stood up and walked up to the door. She wasn’t expecting anyone, especially not at this hour, but she didn’t even wonder who that could be because there was only one person who would knock at her door at one in the morning and, as she expected it, she found Scott standing on the other side of her door as she opened it, a surprised look on his face as he looked at her.

The guys had told him it wasn’t a good idea and he should call a cab if he didn’t feel like walking, go back to his place, wait until he was sober to see her, but as usual, he didn’t listen to them and before he even realized his, his steps had led him to her apartment and he was standing in front of her door. He hadn’t taken this route in a while now, as life seemed to want and keep them apart both busy with a million projects on their plates, but he remembered the way as if he’d walked it the day before. “I didn’t think you’d answer.” He simply said without any form of greeting. Truth be told, he didn’t even know what he was hoping for for when he knocked on her door. All he knew as he made his way from the bar to her place was that he wanted to see her. No. He _needed_ to see her. Talk to her. Bridge the gap that slowly formed in the past few weeks of not seeing each other. He didn’t know about her but he was miserable without her in his life.

“What do you want?” She asked, slightly annoyed, her voice sharp. Now that her brain wasn’t busy anymore, she could feel how heavy her eyelids suddenly were and at this second, there’s nothing more she wants than crawl into her bed. But there was Scott and he would always come before anything else, even a good night of sleep.

“I just wanted to see you.” He said sheepishly, looking down at his shoes. That was a terrible idea, he thought. He should’ve turned around once he realized he was standing in front of a door that wasn’t the one to his apartment, not knock on the door even though he was pretty sure she’d be awake; she was more of a night owl than him.

“At one in the morning?” She asked a little incredulous. She looked at him as he fumbled for the right words to say, his hands slipping in his jeans pockets as he shrugged. If she could clearly see that he had one too many beers tonight, and she’d seen him in that state before, knew that he sometimes acted on an impulse, she still couldn’t understand why the need to see her couldn’t wait a few more hours. He could’ve just called her in the morning, or even text her to set something up for the following day when they could get dinner together or something like that. But he was standing there, his Canada toque on his head, his coat zipped up to his neck, his hands in his pockets, looking either like a child who made a mistake and was afraid of the consequences. “Come in.” She finally gave in, as if she ever had the intention of slamming the door and let him go back to his place, stepping aside to let him in before closing the door behind him. 

She went back to her living room, trying to tidy up the space a bit while Scott took off his toque and coat, setting it down on the bench that was just by the door, and his boots, placing them carefully next to hers on the carpet. “Why that sudden need to see me?” She asks, genuinely curious, as she turned around to look at him as he made his way towards her. For a few seconds that felt like eternity, their eyes locked and they just stood in the middle of her living room, staring at each other. Maybe, deep down, she knew exactly why he was there. Maybe the annoyance she displayed just a few minutes prior wasn’t justified because she was actually happy to see him. 

He shrugged as he took one step closer to her. He knew all too well though, why he was there. He was slightly inebriated, had poor judgment in those moments, and was missing his business partner a little too much. They hadn’t seen each other much lately, her busy with all the work she was doing, with the sponsorships; him with coaching. Their schedules never really matched, him being awake at the crack of dawn and fast asleep by 10pm; her waking up at 8 and coming back home from work at 7. But some nights, they made it work. Some nights, when there wasn’t a game, when he wasn’t going out with the boys whom he was seeing less often than he was seeing Tessa, when she wasn’t too caught up in that new costume she was designing or ideas for that jewelry line she was working on, they found a little time to grab takeout, curl up on one of their couches and watch reruns of The Office or whatever old movie she really wanted to watch. But those were so rare nowadays.

“I missed you.” He said so softly that for a second, she thought she had hallucinated the words coming out of his mouth. But he stepped closer to her again, reached out for her hand, their hands falling into their usual hold even though it’s been months since they didn’t hold hands.

She closed her eyes as their forehead touched but didn’t move. She probably should’ve pulled away because he was drunk and she was tired and it was one in the morning and this wasn’t a good idea. She wanted to pull away but his hands landed on her hips, his fingers brushing against the skin that was showing just between the hem of her shirt and the one of her pants, sending shivers through her whole body.

“We should get some sleep.” She said after a moment, slowly pulling away. And the moment he let his hands fall on each side of his body, she could already feel the lack of his touch, craving for his hands to get back where they were. Still, she turned her back to him and headed to her bedroom.

“I’ll take the couch.” He said, the tone of his voice hurting her. 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She retorted, turning around as she passed through the frame of the door. “I’m not letting you sleep on the couch when there’s a comfortable bed that can definitely welcome two people in this room.” She added before turning around once again before she could see the confused look on Scott’s face. After all, her words and actions didn’t match. Whatever signal she was sending him was mixed and he was in no state to untangle the mess that they were. He probably would’ve had a hard time even if he’d been sober because she didn’t even know what she wanted, what she expected from him right now. All of the things she pushed away when they started drifting apart were coming back to her right now, freaking her out a little and confusing her.

Still, he followed her without a word, taking off his shirt and pants before slipping under the covers while she went to the bathroom to change. As he waited for her to come back, he couldn’t help but think about how he didn’t understand her anymore. If their chemistry was unmatched when they were on the ice, if he could read her like an open book, anticipate her every move, need only few words to communicate, it felt like the complete opposite now that they spent all of their time together off the ice. He tried to figure out when it went wrong, when things started to change and as hard as he tried to figure it out, he couldn’t come up with an answer. He couldn’t see what he did wrong and started to think that maybe there was something going on her side, maybe she was the reason why he couldn’t read her as well as he used to be. He didn’t have more time to think about the meaning of life as she walked back into the room, pulling him away from his thoughts as he shot her a quick look before turning his back to her as she took place next to him.

“You okay?” 

Her voice was as soft as her hand felt on his arm. He could feel her hesitation as her fingertips grazed his bicep, closing his eyes and nodding head as a silent answer to her question. The room fell quiet as quickly as she pulled her hand away from his arm. He hated this. It wasn’t like them to no be able to talk, communicate. They learned from specialists, counselors, therapists, yet they were stuck again, unable to get past this fear that came with talking about real things, about the things that mattered. He felt her shift in the bed and when he turned his head, he could see that she was turning her back to him as well. 

“I miss you.” He repeated after he turned around to look at her and she knew this time that he meant more than just missing being together, sharing a space and a moment. She knew because she missed him too but was unable to voice it. She’d always been less open about her feeling than he was. He wore his heart on his sleeve while she bottled everything up until she couldn’t hold it any longer. She could feel his gaze on her back and for a second, she wondered if it was possible for someone’s gaze to leave marks on another person’s body. If so, her back would be covered as Scott’s eyes studied her body over her clothes as if he didn’t know every curve, every bump, every scar, and every freckle.

“I miss you too.” She turned around to face him, a small smile gracing her features once he turned around and their eyes met. 

They remained quiet for several minutes, taking in the moment and each other. It felt as if they were seeing each other for the first time. Not only looking at each other but truly seeing the other, connecting again. As if what they had lost over the past weeks, months was slowly coming back to them. He reached up to touch her face; his palm pressed against her jaw as his thumb stroke her cheek and she could feel her walls crumble. _How did they live without that?_

“Your hair’s getting longer.” Tessa noticed as she ran her fingers through it, the distance between shrinking with every move they made. “It suits you.”

He wasn’t a fan of the long hair but if she were, he would keep it.

“You like it?” The question was mostly a rhetorical one as her fingers were still tangled in it but still she nodded in answer to his question. Slowly, her hand made its way down to the nape of his neck and she shifted to be closer to him, the tip of their nose touching, their breaths mingling. He suddenly became hyperaware of her every move. How her hand shifted to the side of his neck. How she inched her body even closer to his, their legs now touching. The sound of her hair brushing against the pillow as her head moved closer to his. How soft her lips were on his. 

_How soft her lips were on his._

It took him a split second to figure out what was happening, his brain still a bit foggy, but that made him sober up pretty quickly. His eyes felt shut and it was his hand now that was on the nape of her neck, pulling her closer to him. He wanted, no he needed to feel her body against his, make sure that this wasn’t something his mind made up, some twisted dream his drunken brain came up with. He only opened his eyes a few second after she pulled away, thinking that if this was a dream he wasn’t ready to wake up yet. She was still there, looking as beautiful as ever with the moonlight filtering through the blinds, lighting the room just enough so he could see her eyes glittering eyes, the curve of her lips as she smiled at him, a gesture he returned as soon as he noticed it.

“I love you.” He murmured, as if it was a secret he didn’t want the world to hear, his eyes locked onto hers. He might’ve not known what he wanted when he stood in front of her door, waiting for her to answer, but now, it seemed clear. That was what he wanted. _Her._ He wanted her back in his life in any way she would let him because these last few months barely seeing each other had been the worst and helped him realize that a life without her was not a life he wanted to live. He had tried to see what a normal life could be like, flirted with a girl or two, but quickly came up to the conclusion that he wasn’t interested in that. He wanted the messy, complicated life that they both had been living for the past twenty-one years and he wanted to spend the rest of his life navigating it, trying to figure it out with her by his side.

She didn’t say it back, those three words that seemed to have slipped out of his mouth so easily, but he didn’t mind because she brushed the lightest kiss against his lips and it means everything, even more than words could convey.

“We’ll have to find out a way to see each other a bit more than once in a blue moon if we want this to work.” She said sleepily as his hand slowly runs up and down her back, the motion soothing and slowly lulled her to sleep.

He nodded. “I wouldn’t mind you coming over after work every now and then.” _Or every day_ , but he didn't want to rush her. Actually, he’d prefer that than eating alone at his kitchen table, staring at his kitchen window absentmindedly, just waiting for time to pass. He’d prefer having her over, staying the night, curling up against him rather than sleeping in this king size bed on his own, bundling up under the covers in order to find some warmth. Better waking up next to her, untangling his limbs from hers, looking at her, peaceful, as she’s fast asleep, than waking up in an empty bed, the light from his alarm clock as his only companion.

“I wouldn’t mind you coming over either.” She mumbled, struggling to keep her eyes open. “I’d just need to make you a key.” No, she wouldn’t mind coming back to her apartment and seeing Scott sitting at her kitchen table as he’d go over videos he’d taken during the day, glasses on his nose and he’d scribble down notes in his notebook as he'd wait for her to come home. Just as she wouldn’t complain if, from time to time, he’d take the initiative of cooking – even though her fridge was close to empty at the moment – and she’d come home to a homemade dinner rather than getting takeout from a few of her favorite restaurants when she didn’t feel like eating poached eggs and toasts.

Their schedules still didn’t match but the knowledge that she wanted it as much as he did, that she missed him as much as he did, that she was willing to make it works just like he was, gave him hope that the two of them could be together, that they would find a way. “I think we’ll figure something out.” He said quietly before pressing his lips to her forehead in a light kiss. She nodded in agreement and curled up against his side as he pulled her to him, relishing in the warmth of his body. No matter the obstacles they had to face, they’ve always found a way through them and this time would be no different, they were both sure of it.

As her breathing slowed down to match his and with the soothing motion of his hand rubbing her back making her drowsier by the minute, Tessa couldn’t help but think that she wouldn’t mind if this were to become their routine. She could definitely get used to it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this much happier story. Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback in the comments, I always love reading them.
> 
> Title is from Stay by Rihanna.


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